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Roommate wants to break lease, but we are on good terms, what should we do?

Like everybody else is saying, you lost me at "Our roommate offered to pay half rent until the lease is up"... That's not an "offer," his part of the rent is his reponsibility. What he's doing is asking you to pay him money. If you're willing to do it or not is entirely up to you, but don't think that he's doing you a favor.

You don't seem to be thinking about it the right way, so make sure you don't stumble over your words.

He owes you all of the rent for the duration of the lease. That is his debt. He has to pay it. It's his obligation. He can't "offer to pay half." That is him, in fact, asking you if you'll pay half.

Oh if there is anything on my mind, it's the fact that outside of us trying to be nice he has two options, one to pay his rent, or two to find somebody to replace himself. My boyfriend just floated the idea to me, that if half-rent in two places is all that he can afford, then why not he or us find someone to pay the other half? Frankly as long as the rent is payed in full I don't care what combination needs to be found to do it, and we might have an easier time of finding a new temporary roommate with "50% off rent" in the ad.

You don't seem to be thinking about it the right way, so make sure you don't stumble over your words.

He owes you all of the rent for the duration of the lease. That is his debt. He has to pay it. It's his obligation. He can't "offer to pay half." That is him, in fact, asking you if you'll pay half.

Oh if there is anything on my mind, it's the fact that outside of us trying to be nice he has two options, one to pay his rent, or two to find somebody to replace himself. My boyfriend just floated the idea to me, that if half-rent in two places is all that he can afford, then why not he or us find someone to pay the other half? Frankly as long as the rent is payed in full I don't care what combination needs to be found to do it, and we might have an easier time of finding a new temporary roommate with "50% off rent" in the ad.

Still though, IT'S NOT your responsibility to find a new roommate at the last minute to fill two months. I mean from what you're saying he's got like a week or two to find a room mate to fill in. If he can't, he can't move in with the new guy and fuck you two over, that's the long and short of it.

The two of you should not lift a finger to find a new room mate unless this guy stiffs you and you have to do that to make ends meet, at which point you'll have an entirely different H/A thread to worry about.

that's one of the issues when someone moves out mid-lease, they want to find ANYBODY to get in there, but you want to make sure it's the right fit. unless you have pretty good luck, there's bound to be some tension there.

So get the landlord's permission. If you tell him your roommate is ditching you and you need to find someone to make up that portion of the rent so you can afford the place, he's not going to deny you. Would he like to be paid his rent on time or not? And yes, Spaniard is stuck finding a replacement. Life isn't fair. "Screw that" is not a solution, it's an emotional response that won't do him any good when the landlord is asking where the rest of the rent is.

I think we're talking past each other.

You're saying that The_Spaniard needs to do what he has to do to make up the rent. I actually agree with this.

But what I'm saying is that The_Spaniard and his boyfriend are spending too much energy on "being nice", and treating helping the roommate as their first resort. That is, they're buying into the narrative that they have no choice but to accept that they're going to get screwed, and that the roommate's offer is meaningful, and that it's their job to find a new roommate rather than expecting him to lift a finger.

In other words, you're right that looking for a roommate as a backup plan for "current roommate fucks off and leaves us holding the bag" is a good plan.* But there's a world of difference in treating that as what do to if the current roommate fucks off, and treating it as something that's your job and you have to do to "be nice".

They haven't, yet, sat the roommate down and told him he owes two months' rent, he is free to move whenever he likes, but he is asking them to subsidize his friends' rent, and that is not only unfair, but is in violation of their legal agreement.

*Not necessarily a very practical one, given that they have to find the roommate, get the OK for sublets from the landlord, get the OK for THIS roommate from the landlord, and do all this in time to make up the two months' rent, but still.

Bit of an update, the roommate has moved a lot of his stuff out including his TV and computer, and isn't sleeping here anymore. We haven't released him from the lease yet, and he said to my boyfriend that he's not going to "fuck" us on the rent, so we'll see where things go from here.

Really depends on what he thinks his obligations are. If he thinks he's being generous by offering half of the rent for the two months (and he seems to think that) then he obviously doesn't realise that his obligations are to pay the entire amount by default. He may not see offering you half rent for two months as "fucking you"

Just an update, first roommate has moved out, WE found a new roommate ourselves to take his place. New temporary roommate, until our lease is up, is paying half rent and the old roommate is paying half rent until the lease is up. As long as rent gets paid and we don't get screwed we are ok with this arrangement.

I'd ask your roommate to pay his full share and tell his friend he's getting half rent until July. Prior obligations, and it's kinda terrible for him to ride to the rescue of some other dude's bad financial decision while shirking his own responsibilities.

he shoudl pay what he owes, and help his other friend until he's out of his contract.

Talk to the landlord, if you have been paying on time going on 3 years he might lower your rent for 2 months to $1500 allowing him to pay half. If you are on good terms with your landlord and it isnt some random company in california that owns the property you might have a good chance of it happening. If you have been treating the house well and taking good care of it the better chance you have of getting some sort of deal with the landlord.

It actually is a complex owned by the Irvine company..

Anyway some more info, my boyfriend is currently going to school on his GI bill which runs out in August, and corporate announced that they are closing the store that I work at, so you could imagine that an extra inconsiderate expense like this is the last thing we need. Though let me know what you guys think of this. I've already been told that I'm being transferred and keeping my job, but I'm not supposed to know yet. Would it be wrong to use the fact that I'm not supposed to know yet as a bargaining tool to say, "My boyfriend's GI bill runs out in August, and I might not have a job in a few weeks, this is the last thing we need."

Yes, it would be wrong to lie to your friend to get the money your friend owes you. But this is money your friend owes you. If your friend doesn't realize this, then your friend's either very stupid or incredibly callous. If it's just a case of the stupids, then all you need to do is sit him down and explain to him that he can't just bail on the lease. If it's a case of him being a silly goose, then I guess you can start with the threats or whatever. But step one is just to sit down and say "listen, we need you to pay the rent." Don't lie about how much you need him to pay the rent, because it's not like he would owe you less if you had a nice job or owe you more if you actually were getting laid off.

Don't assume that being told you're getting transferred to another store, but don't tell anyone because you're totally not supposed to know yet, means anything until you've actually gotten the transfer. Lots of people get told stuff like that to keep them from blowing off the place before the end.

This. Holy shit this. They are almost certainly feeding you a fucking line. Start looking for another job now.

Yeah I'm looking at this from the same angle. They may not be lying, you might have that job lined up 100%, but until you have signed some kind of contract or gotten some kind of official guarantee the guys word means nothing. I wouldn't plan my finances based on the supposed fact that you are guaranteed the job.

With that in mind, getting your roommate to keep his end of lease is even more important.

and again it rears its ugly head...

If it's not on paper you have no transfer. You have nothing. You are not moving to a new location. No one knows what you're talking about when they fire you and you say but but but I was getting a transfer. "What? Who told you that? I believe you were mistaken. I'll speak with that person, now clean out your locker. Good luck in the future."

If it's not on paper, signed by you and someone with authority to make it so, it did not happen.

I know the OP got the transfer but I feel like it really has to be said every time.